


Happily Ever After Effect

by Rinienne



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Action/Adventure, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fairy Tales, M/M, Multi, Paragon Commander Shepard, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-09
Updated: 2013-01-24
Packaged: 2017-11-24 07:23:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/631894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rinienne/pseuds/Rinienne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even after everything Shepard went through during his life, he had never imagined to find himself one day trapped in a castle pretending to be a prince. It all started with a routine mission on the far edge of the galaxy, when the Normandy simply stopped to move. After the long day of figuring what happened, Commander Shepard returned to his quarters where he found a very strange man in a black and red uniform he had never seen before, and who introduced himself as Q. Now the commander has three days to figure out how to break the weird curse and save everyone he cares about.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> That what happens when you watch Star Trek and Once Upon a Time "because it has Sbarge in it". You really don't have to know anything about those TV shows to understand the story.

Every story has its beginning and its end. Of course many stories has been written hundreds of years ago, but there are still some which had only the time to start, stories the ending of which is nothing more than an unknown number of combinations of how they could or couldn’t end,  the uncertainty of circumstances which can lead to a conclusion no one can ever predict. And while this story has begun over three years ago, while some higher forces in the universe might even know what was awaiting the heroes ahead, one simple day turned into a grand story of its own.

***

“Joker!” Shepard called moving away from the Galaxy Map and striding towards the bridge. “What is going on?”

The commander could see the pilot in the end of the short corridor separating the room Shepard just left and the bridge. Joker was sitting in his chair pressing buttons on the main panel in hurry, as he was trying to understand the reason of a sudden stop.

“I have no idea, commander!” Joker replied. “Every system is online, no reports of anything that could cause this.”

“No signatures of any other vessel around us, and I couldn’t detect any system hacking attempts.” EDI supported. “We simply… stopped moving.”

“I can’t see a reason why would we stop, commander,” Adams reported through the com-link. “The core is in a perfect condition, no damage to the engines, no outburst of eezo in the system. We of course will start to check everything again.”

“Cary on,” Sheppard approved and disconnected the link.

It was an absolutely normal day, like any other days in the past couple of months. Of course normal was also a relative concept for someone who spent the last several months trying to find ways of defeating the Reapers, building the Crucible and uniting races who previously hated each other, but in any case, there was nothing that could have done this to the Normandy: no weird artifacts picked on deserted planets no new alien species met, no enemy encountered. Everything was perfectly fine and then suddenly the Normandy simply stopped moving.

It was a distant cornet of the Milky Way galaxy, the Shrike Abyssal where the crew of the Normandy was trying to locate a Prothean obelisk to help with the construction of the Crucible. There was nothing around them for millions of miles but some dead stars or drifting asteroids, and still even after several hours spent trying to figure what happened, they were not much closer to an answer.

At the end of the day, when the clock started to show twenty three hundred, a small amount of fear started to settle in everyone’s mind. They had spent around twelve hours trying to find a problem to fix. Several times they tried to launch a probe to find any external weaves or forces stopping them, but there was nothing.

“We should better get some rest.” Liara sighed, placing her hand on Shepard’s shoulder who was sitting in her room trying to work something out using her terminals. “Perhaps we will be able to find a solution with a clear head.”

“I’m not sure if I will be able to sleep.” Shepard shook his head. “Not while we stuck here.”

“Shepard.” Liara sighed. “It’s getting late. If you don’t want to sleep, then please, I can use those hours with no communication with the outer world and catch up on something which has become a rarety lately.”

“Yeah…” Shepard nodded, standing up and moving towards the exit, “Right, I’m sorry. I should’ve thought about it.”

“It’s ok…” Liara smiled. “Just… don’t work too hard?”

***

Shepard was walking towards his quarters with the data-pad in his hand, trying to calculate the food supplies. The Normandy had enough food for at least five days. Ten days if they would be careful, skipping halves of their meals. The biotics on board would suffer the most because of it, but if they won’t use any of their powers, they should be fine. Kaidan would probably be affected the most, as any shortage on calories for him would mean even more migraines than usual. The commander sighed changing some numbers on the data-pad around, taking some of his portions away to add to the biotic’s and hoping at the same time that it wouldn’t look strange.

Shepard walked to the elevator, he had only started reaching to the button to summon it, as the door opened and Kaidan stepped out nearly bumping into Shepard.

“Uh, sorry!” He stepped out of the way. “Didn’t expect anyone.” He chuckled.

Shepard glanced over the major noticing how tired he looked. His hands and one cheek were dirty, covered in oil, so most likely the biotic spent this entire time at the engineering deck trying to help there. “You all right?” Shepard inquired concerned.

“Yeah,” Kaidan nodded, “hell of a day.”

“Found anything?”

“No,” Kaidan shook his head. “Spend the entire day crawling through ventilation shafts with Ken and Gabby, checking the eezo conduits. Didn’t find a thing.”

“You should go to bed.” Shepard smiled warmly.

“Mhhmm, bed would be great right now,” Kaidan said with a smirk, “wouldn’t mind to get vertical, so to say.”

Shepard looked at Kaidan suspiciously. Was the man flirting with him again? That was weird and uncomfortable. Weird because the commander had never seen Kaidan interested in men before, in fact he hardly seen him interested in anyone, except some asari dancers in a club, and uncomfortable because every time Shepard heard Kaidan flirting he had been feeling those weird burning sensations spreading from his chest and up to his neck and cheeks.

Damn it, what Kaidan was thinking about? They didn’t have time for… well, anything like that. It wasn’t even that Shepard couldn’t imagine himself with a man, even if nearly all of his sexual partners before were women, it was just they didn’t have time. And well, Kaidan was Shepard’s friend. A very good one, even after all of the distrust from the biotic side. The commander couldn’t jeopardize the mission and their friendship, which they had only started to rebuild, because the two of them had suddenly decided to start thinking with their lower heads.

“I’m sorry,” Kaidan blurred out, probably noticing Shepard’s confusion, “that one was probably too much…”

Kaidan looked away, starting to exit the elevator moving towards the crew quarters. Shepard wanted to reach out and grab his hand, but stopped himself the last moment, thankful he was able to, as the commander had no idea what would he say to Kaidan if he stopped the man.

“Shit.” Shepard sworn out loud when Kaidan was out of the sight, before stepping into the elevator.

Next moment he returned to his data-pad concentrating on the food supply calculation. He really needed to work to get everything else out of his head.

Shepard arrived to his deck not even noticing it at first. He then stepped out of the elevator moving towards his quarters not tearing his eyes from the data. He entered his quarters and moved straight to his bed, taking the time to only take off his boots, before he climbed on the bed spreading in the middle of it.

“Nice collection of ships.” Someone suddenly said.

Shepard nearly dropped his data-pad, startled. He looked up spotting a man standing next to the glass stand. The man looked around forty, with short black hair, dressed in what it looked to be a uniform, but one Shepard had never seen in his life. The uniform was mostly black with red top, on the left side of his chest the man wore a metal symbol Shepard had also never seen. It looked like a letter ‘A’ with a star in the middle.

“Who the hell are you?” Shepard snapped, “Intruder alert!” He then added activating the com link on his omni-tool and rushing to the armor locker on the right side from the bed, retrieving a pistol and pointing it at the man.

“Ah, don’t bother!” The strange man weaved his hand. “I disabled the communications. Also, your weapons won’t be able to do anything to me.  And as for the name, you can call me Q.” He smiled wide.

Shepard blinked, still holding his gun pointed towards the man. This Q guy must have been bluffing telling that weapons wouldn’t hurt him. Even if it was the truth, no way Shepard could go down without trying if he was about to be attacked.

“What the hell are you doing here?” The commander demanded.

“Oh, I was just passing by…”

“Passing by? Really?” The commander chuckled sarcastically.

“Have anyone told you that you don’t suppose to interrupt while other people speak?” Q clicked his tongue, snapping his fingers.

Shepard tried to reply, to say that a person who came uninvited and unexpected have no rights to talk about manners, but realized that he couldn't emit a single sound, only open his mouth like one of the fish from his tank.

“I suppose I could really explain myself.” The strange man chuckled. “As I said, I’m Q, I live in the Continuum. Nothing really your primitive mortal brain can comprehend. I traveled through the whole universe in my world, been in every place, talked to every person. And then an idea came into my mind,” he said pointing his index finger to the ceiling, “why wouldn’t I spend some time exploring other worlds? You know, to find at least something new.” He then moved towards the table fetching a bottle of wine from a drawer under it and filling a glass. “And this universe of yours. Truly fascinating. A race of sentient machines comes every fifty thousand years… I just had to take a look!” Q took a sip from his glass, made a disgusted face and returned the glass back to the table.

“You probably wondering, what do I want from you,” Q continued. “The answer is simple. I watched you for quite some time. For the entire day, in fact, the whole time you’ve been stuck in here.”

Great, it looked like their whole misfortune was the fault of this strange man.

“Your life is so dramatic, so… sad… But don’t worry, I can fix it. I would like to give you a gift.”

Shepard tried to talk again, but it was useless.

“Now, you will go to bed, and will see your gift tomorrow.” Q chuckled, snapping his fingers.

Everything around the commander suddenly started to sink into the darkness. Shepard felt dizzy, felt his legs starting to stop listening to him. He started to fall, being able to make the only step closer to the bed, before his consciousness finally left him.

***

Kaidan stepped out of the shower wearing a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. It was late and most of the crew was already getting ready to bed so the way from the bathroom to the quarters was empty. The biotic stepped inside the room, trying to be quiet as there were many people already asleep and moved straight towards his bed, climbing into it and sinking under the cover.

What an idiot he was. Flirting with Shepard, with his commander, with his friend. Kaidan doubted Shepard so many times, he turned his back on him on Horizon, he questioned him on Mars. Even if the commander honestly forgave him for that, it still was wrong in so many ways to even attempt to build anything with the other man.

Together they went through hell and back, together they saved the Citadel, stopped Saren. But then Shepard died and was brought back by Cerberus and no matter how the commander tried, there was still a little bit of uncertainty about him. Even if the man was really Commander Shepard, who could give a guarantee that the Illusive Man wasn’t holding a switch under his finger which would turn Shepard into his puppet any moment?

With that, Kaidan didn’t even know what made him suddenly interested in his friend this way, but if to think about it, it had probably started after Mars, where Shepard saved the biotic’s life, and after they talked in the hospital and Shepard started to flirt himself. No, he wasn’t flirting. Kaidan perfectly knew this man, knew that sometimes he could say something which would look like attempt to get intimate, but was actually just straight forward thoughts, without any subtext behind them. Shepard had always had this problem. Kaidan smirked remembering how once the commander said something to Ashley and an entire week she had spent thinking that Shepard had something for her. She was restless not knowing how to react and in the end it turned out Shepard had no even a slightest clue what he had done.

Kaidan turned to the other side, pulling his cover over own head. Of course Shepard saying that Kaidan got better with age was nothing but implication that he had become a better soldier, a better biotic. But still the man tried to make sure, to flirt a little to see Shepard’s reaction. And this reaction had never been anything more than a dumb shock from the commander’s side.

Kaidan really had to stop, to forget about it. But the problem was that after he only allowed the thought about them being together slip into his mind, he couldn’t get rid of it anymore.

The biotic sighed, closing his eyes. At least he needed to stop thinking about it for now. Tomorrow was going to be a difficult day, they would still need to figure out what was going on with the ship, figure how to fix it and continue with their mission, so for now Kaidan needed to concentrate on getting some sleep.

 And so he did.

The morning came unexpectedly fast. Kaidan still didn’t feel like getting out of his bed, but the Normandy’s alarm went off as usual at six hundred, indicating the wakeup time. Kaidan had never been a morning person, even after years of the military training. He stretched, thinking about five more minutes of resting, especially with the fact he went to bed nearly two hours after the bedtime, but then decided that he simply couldn’t set a bad example to the people with lower ranks, so he opened his eyes trying to force himself into a sitting position.

Surprisingly it was very dark, impossible to see anything, like all of the lights on the ship went off and someone decided to close the observation port, so even the light of stars couldn’t reach here. The biotic moved his legs from the bed to set them on the floor, but there wasn’t any floor around – he was sitting on a flat soft surface, which definitely wasn’t his bed. No, it was in fact his bed, because it smelt like him, like the shower gel he always used.

Still not sure what to do, Kaidan started to crawl forward, trying to determine what was going on. For some reason it was difficult, like his body wasn’t his, like his legs had a different structure from before. Kaidan gulped reaching to one of his leg. It was different, thin and long and didn’t remind human at all. Now when he started to think about it, his entire body didn’t remind human. His mouth felt like it was opening vertically and not horizontally, his butt felt like there was a weird attachment to it. Kaidan gulped again, trying to touch the said attachment. It was warm and massive, starting from between his legs and further down and had something covering it from the back side. Kaidan started to explore this something with his fingers, realizing that this something was growing from his back. Was that… wings?

Kaidan dropped to the ground in panic, trying his best not to scream. A weave of panic was enveloping him, making him choke and shiver. The biotic wasn’t sure how long he spent like this but next moment the sky above, or at least something he thought was sky, was torn and bright light reached Kaidan’s eyes.

The biotic looked around realizing he was still in the crew quarters, but now the room was simply enormous. He was still sitting on his bed, but now it was giant, and everything around him was giant.

Suddenly he heard a high-pitched scream from somewhere above him. He raised his eyes and noticed engineer Daniels standing above him and looking down, screaming. She was enormous as well.

The realization suddenly hit Kaidan: everything in the room wasn’t giant, it was just him who became smaller. But he really didn’t have any time to dwell on it as Gabby reached for some sort of a magazine laying on the nightstand folded it into a tube and took a swing.

Kaidan had no more than a second before he saw the magazine quickly descending above him. He jumped to the side, expecting to move at least enough not to be crushed, but the jump he made was unexpectedly strong, so he nearly ended smashing into the wall.

Daniels took another swing.

“Gabby! Don’t, please!” Kaidan pleaded.

The girl suddenly stopped still, shocked. With a relief Kaidan realized that he still could talk.

“It’s me, Kaidan…” the biotic explained.

“Kai… What?!” Daniels surprised, dropping the magazine. “What… what happened? You’re… you’re a cricket!” She said in shock.

“I have no idea…” Kaidan shook his head. “And what? Cricket?”

Kaidan looked down at his hands. They only had three fingers and were green. The biotic glanced around and spotted a mirror above the nightstand. It was too high for him to look.

“Gabby… could you… could you bring me up to the mirror?” He asked.

“Me? Like, take you in hands?” She surprised.

“Well, yeah.”

“Umm…” She scratched the back of her neck. “There is a small problem…”

“A small problem?”

“Yeah, I… umm… don’t really want to touch you...” she admitted slightly blushing.

***

Shepard didn’t hear the sound of the wakeup alarm. In fact he slept so good, like he hadn’t been in months. The commander woke up because of the bright light shining right into his eyes, feeling absolutely rested. The bright light although made him startled, as it felt like the sunlight soaking from somewhere unto the commander's face. Shepard opened his eyes, trying to figure what was going on and suddenly feeling very awake. He was laying on a large soft bed in a place which didn’t look like his quarters even slightest. It was a big bright room with tall ceiling and large windows, with stone walls draped in dozens different tapestries with images of exotic animals. The bed he was laying in had a canopy with thin white silk descending around it and the stone floor was covered in soft animal pelts.

Shepard was also wearing absolutely ridiculous night clothing which reminded something like a dress, also white and silky to the touch. When he stood up from the bed, he also noticed that under that tunic he wasn’t wearing any underwear which made him slightly uncomfortable.

Shepard rushed to the window to look outside and had a hard time believing his eyes as the only thing he could see was miles of fields and forest around the building which was nothing else, but an actual real castle.

“What the hell?” He muttered under his nose.

Someone knocked on the door, making the commander to turn around. Instinctively he reached to his side where he usually had a pistol, but realized that he still was dressed in this ridiculous white tunic. He quickly scanned the room to locate any weapons but the only things he could spot were several axes on one of the walls and a sword next to his bed. Well, a sword, even if Shepard had no idea how to wield it, was still better than nothing, so he reached to it, taking the blade out of its leather sheath.

“Who is there?” Shepard demanded.

“It is me, Kenneth.” He heard a familiar voice of one of his engineers. Shepard relaxed returning the sword to its place.

“Come in?” He said tentatively.

The large wooden door opened and Kenneth entered the room. Shepard raised his eyebrow seeing the engineer in a suit which looked even more ridiculous than his night robe. It was renaissance style clothing with orange jacket worn on top of a white shirt and bizarre looking puffy brown pantaloons. Kenneth was smiling as he entered the room holding a plate filled with different fruits, bread and cheese.

“Good morning, Your Highness, did you sleep well tonight?” Ken inquired.

“Yeah, yeah, I did,” Shepard nodded still shocked, “Wait, what? Your highness?!”

The man blinked surprised: “Well, this is how I always call you.” He explained.

“Ok, that is not funny!” Shepard shook his head. “What is going on?”

Kenneth narrowed his eyebrows. “Nothing is going on, sir,” he said, “the farms are giving good crops, the animals in stables are healthy…”

“What crops? What animals?” Shepard exhaled rubbing the bridge of his nose between his fingers in frustration. “Where is the Normandy? Joker? The rest of the crew?”

“Normandy is in France, my lord… Joker is probably somewhere in the castle, but I can call him if you need entertainment. The rest of the crew? I’m not sure what are you referring to…”

Shepard blinked looking the other man from tip to toe. He expected him to burst into laughing any moment, to tell it was a joke to cheer the commander up, but Kenneth looked serious. Not sure what to do, Shepard sat on the edge of the bed.

“You have probably seen a dream last night, Your Highness. But I understand… you must be feeling anxious about today, nervous… But in any case, your father is waiting for you in the throne chambers, you need to have your breakfast.” Kenneth said placing the plate on the nightstand next to the bed. “Would you like me to help you with bathing and changing first?”

Shepard raised his eyebrow. “Umm… no, I’ll figure.” He said. “Dismissed.”

“As you wish, my lord.” Kenneth bowed and left the room closing the door behind him.

Shepard was sure he was dreaming. At least it was a single reasonable explanation of what was going on. He tried to pinch himself to wake up, but it didn’t help. Everything around seemed so unreal, like someone threw him into a fairy tale or something, and the worst of all it looked like he was the only one remembering. The commander tried to recollect the events of the previous day. The Normandy was on the way to Talis Fia planet to pick a Prothean artifact. Then the ship suddenly stopped moving. Shepard worked the whole day, then he went to bed, then…

“All right, what the hell is going on? Q!” Shepard called.

“Oh, nothing much!” the man in the black and red uniform replied appearing right in front of Shepard. “I just decided to give you an opportunity to sort some things out. It looked like you didn’t have time for it before, stuck on that ship of yours.”

“If you didn’t notice, I don’t have time for it right now, as Reapers keep striking the earth!” Shepard pointed out of the window, like he was trying to make a point. “Every hour spend in here reduces my chances of defeating them!”

“Oh, don’t worry about it!” Q chuckled. “I have no intentions of wasting your time. If you will be able to complete the challenge ahead of you, I will return you back to your ship the moment it stopped. You won’t lose a single hour!”

“Challenge? Is it a game for you?” Shepard groaned.

“Oh, no. Not a game. But anyway, you really should consider yourself lucky – I wasn’t in any mood for violence, you know!”

“Well, thanks for that… I guess...” Shepard sighed. “All right, what do you want me to do for you?”

“I don’t want you do anything for me!” Q laughed. “I want you to do it for yourself!”

“So?”

“So, you have three days! During those three days you need to play the role of a young prince, need to figure how to break my… umm… spell!”

“And what if I won’t be able to?” Shepard inquired. “What if I simply choose to spend those three days here, locked in this room?”

“Well, in this case, this reality will become permanent and you will be stuck in here forever.” Q simply explained, like it was nothing, like something like this was a usual routine for the man. “Without you, Reapers will eventually win, destroying every organic life, millions of people will die. But hey, there will be a good side in it as well. Every person in this universe I created will survive. Every member of your crew, plus some more. Mere two or three percent of the entire population of your galaxy, way less than if you figure out how to stop the Reapers.”

“It is not fair!” Shepard protested.

“Well, life is never fair!” Q smirked. “But well! See you on the flip sides!” He grinned and snapped his fingers disappearing from the room.

***

Kaidan hopped from the crew quarters to the mess hall, looking around the ship. It was empty, like the Normandy was abandoned in hurry, like everyone just dropped what they were doing and left, leaving him and Gabby behind. There were traces of the crew presence: several half-eaten breakfasts on the table, a plastic cup laying on the ground next to a water fountain with water spilled around it. It looked like someone was in the middle of drinking it when suddenly disappeared.

“Perhaps we will find some answers on the combat information center deck?” Kaidan proposed starting to hop back to the elevator.

“I highly doubt it…” Gabby sighed, “I tried to contact anyone on the ship through the com link, but no-one answered. Like there was no-one to answer, even EDI is silent.”

“We still better go there, maybe we will at least find any information about the planet we landed.”

Kaidan stopped for a second midway to the elevators trying to catch a breath. He was getting used to using his new legs for jumping and it wasn’t that difficult. But the constant jumps and descends were making him dizzy and nauseous, like he was spending time on a weird carousel.

“You do have wings, you know…” Gabby proposed.

“Uh… I’m not sure I’m ready to this sort of expenses just yet.” Kaidan admitted. “It’s kind of weird to be anything else but a human.”

“I wonder what happened to you…” The engineer inquired. “It could have been some anomaly in this sector of space, some radiation. I hope it is reversible…”

“Yeah, I hope so too,” Kaidan sighed.

The whole time they spent traveling from the crew deck here and back (and it really took Kaidan some time to figure how to move around) Kaidan simply didn’t have time to think about what could have happened to him. More over think about if it was possible to turn back into a human. But now when Gabby mentioned it, Kaidan started to feel worried. What if there wasn’t a way to return to normal? What if he will have to spend the rest of his life as a cricket?

Kaidan shook his head. Thinking about worst was only making things more complicated, loosing hope was the same as admitting the loss. “Come on, we have some more important matters ahead.” He said. “We need to find the rest of the crew.”

The combat information center was empty as expected. Kaidan jumped on the console before the Galaxy map, trying to activate it, but the map was closed and Kaidan didn’t have the access.

Gabby meanwhile moved further towards the bridge. “Hey, Kaidan, you should take a look at this!” She called, turning left towards the airlock.

It took the biotic nearly a minute to reach the engineer, but when he did he couldn’t suppress his surprise. The airlock door was open and led to something which reminded a forest on top of a hill. The trees were the mix of pines and firs with some shorter deciduous trees and bushes. Dozens of different birds were chirping around, enjoying the warmth of the morning sun. It felt, it smelt, it was “Earth…”Kaidan whispered.

“It can’t be!” Gabby protested. “Earth right now looks like a warzone all over!”

“I know.” Kaidan agreed. “But it sure looks like it.”

“And what is it there?” Gabby asked pointing somewhere towards the other hill.

Kaidan fallowed the direction with his eyes and noticed a structure on the top of the hill. It was white and huge, with several towers rising up to the sky. “A... castle?” the biotic surprised.

***

Shepard searched the room, which was supposedly his, for a shower, but found nothing but a small tube made of stone in the further corner of the room with several buckets filled with water standing next to it. After a moment of contemplation he decided to skip the bath, as he didn’t have time to figure how it worked. Instead he simply used the water to wash hands, face and neck, then he sniffed under his armpits and understood that it wouldn’t be enough, so he took off his weird night robe and stood in the middle of the tube, grabbing one of the buckets and splashing the lukewarm water all over his body. The commander was sure it wasn’t nearly enough to wash fully, but at least he got rid of the sticky sensation on his skin.

Then, after drying himself with a piece of cloth he found next to the tube, he moved towards the wardrobe which was also supposedly his. After digging for at least ten minutes, checking every section and every drawer he realized that yes, in fact there wasn’t any underwear here. At least in a sense Shepard used to. There were however some sort of silky knee-long pants which Shepard could wear under the leather slacks he dug out the wardrobe earlier, because there was no way he could wear those pants without anything under them and not end up with his skin obliterated in sensitive areas.

Finding to wear something on top was less difficult, because after only a moment of looking he ended up in a plane white shirt and brown leather jacket.

After the breakfast, which was surprisingly good considering that the last several month he has been eating mostly military rations, Shepard finally decided to go down to the throne room to meet a person who in this world was supposed to be his father.

The throne room itself looked like it came from a picture of an old fairy tale book. Large, with two rows of columns on the each side and a double staircase leading to a balcony above the three thrones. The walls of the room were decorated with tapestries similar to the ones he seen in own room and a red carped was covering the floor. The room was also bright, as it has several large windows on each side of it and an actual glass ceiling.

The throne room was filled with different people, rushing back and forward, decorating the columns with flowers and white and blue ribbons, like they were getting ready to a celebration of some sort. Every time people were noticing Shepard they were stopping still, greeting him with a bow, which was making the commander slightly uncomfortable as he was fighting the urge to salute them in response. Instead he decided to simply nod to each person he saw.

The thrones themselves were empty. Shepard was curious of who could possibly be presented here as the king, because it couldn’t be his real father for sure. But even with it, seeing what this Q guy could do, he still couldn’t stop thinking that maybe…

“Ah, my son!” He heard a familiar voice behind him and turned his head.

“Ander… father!” Shepard smiled, ignoring the way how funny Anderson looked in his king outfit, with a crown on his head. Of course it wasn’t his real father, but to tell the truth it maybe was for the best.

“You woke up late today. Did you have problems sleeping?” Anderson inquired patting Shepard on the back. “And what is it with this outfit? I’m not recalling any plans for a hunt.”

“I just felt like wearing something more comfortable today.” Shepard shrugged his shoulders. “And no, I slept well tonight,” he also added.

“That’s all right, we have six hours before the delegation arrives, you will have time to change.” Anderson nodded. “Ready for the big day?” He inquired.

Shepard honestly had no idea what was going to happen today, but he had to improvise, to play along. “As ready as I can only be, for such a… an occasion.” The commander smiled.

“Very good, my son!” Anderson nodded, placing his hand on Shepard’s shoulder. “I’m so very proud of you! I’m sure you will be happy!”

“Yeah, I’m sure too…” Shepard sighed, trying to look like he was telling the truth, while he had been always bad at pretending.

“Still a little anxious about it?” Anderson asked looking Shepard right in the eyes.

“Well, how can I hide anything from you, when you read me so well?” Shepard chuckled.

“Do you want me to tell you secret?” Anderson asked.

“If you ready to share it.” Shepard nodded.

Anderson looked around smiling. They stood quite far away from the people decorating the room, but there could have been still many witnesses to hear the king’s secret. Shepard expected Anderson to go somewhere else to talk, but the admiral simply smiled, continuing his speech, like there was nothing secretive about it. “I was also very anxious when I was about to meet your mother,” he whispered, “couldn’t fall asleep the whole night, worrying that I might say something wrong, or do something wrong. But it ended up perfectly, as you can see. So, don’t worry, I’m sure your meeting with the princess will go as well as mine.”

Shepard blinked contemplating every word the admiral just said. Then he looked around the room, realizing suddenly that people here was preparing for nothing else but a wedding with all those white ribbons and flowers. And the most frightening was the realization that the wedding was his.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, looks like there is going to be more that 3 parts... I think 4... 4 is good... Unless I will come up with some unexpected turns again >_

The sounds of the forest were loud, but at the same time pleasant and lulling. If Kaidan would have only closed his eyes he could pretend that he was back on Earth, as a little child who went camping with his father to one of the slopes of the mountains around the English Bay. He could pretend that there weren’t any wars, any Reapers threatening to destroy everything he ever knew and loved, he could listen to these sounds forever.

But of course Kaidan would never do that, because too many lives were at steak and he had to figure out what happened to the crew, to Shepard, even if his current condition would definitely stay in the way.

“Still not ready to try flying?” Daniels asked. She was walking through the forest down a small path between the trees, carrying a small wooden stick in her left hand with Kaidan who was sitting on the other end of this stick. “My hand is little bit sore of holding you like that… sir. Also, I hope you don’t mind if I will stop calling you sir, because I feel awkward.”

“Well, it would be easier if you would allow me to climb on your shoulder, you know,” Kaidan proposed. “And yeah, with the circumstances like this, I think we can be little less formal.”

“Thanks, but no way, I’m allowing you anywhere near me…” Gabby sighed.

“Why are you afraid of bugs?” Kaidan inquired. “I mean, I know bugs aren’t the most pleasant looking creatures, but after everything we have seen during the past several months… it’s ridiculous to be afraid of insects.”

“I have a good reason to be disgusted by bugs. After being abducted by the collectors and nearly killed, I prefer to stay away from them.” Gabby explained. “And what are your reasons of being afraid of flying?”

“I’m not afraid of flying! I’m a marine, who can pilot any shuttle or ship, including the Normandy.” Kaidan protested. “Although, of course, I would never be as good as Joker.” He also admitted.

“So, what is your problem then?”

“I… I dunno. I mean piloting a shuttle, it’s one thing… but flying, actually flying, on my own…” Kaidan shuddered.

“You’re afraid of heights?” Gabby pondered.

“No I’m not!” Kaidan protested. Even if it was actually true. Most of the times of course he was able to suppress it, but a slight fear of heights was always there. It was also the reason he had never mastered the levitation powers. It also had never been an issue, as the fear was never present if he was in a vessel of any sort, or standing on high platforms, because he knew that he wasn’t going to fall. “All right, maybe a little.” He finally agreed.

“You know if you were to suppress this fear, you could have flied to the castle on your own and take a look on what is going on in there, so we wouldn’t have to walk in something dangerous blindly.”

Kaidan glanced at the engineer. Of course she had a point. Plus the last three hours she had spent walking in the forest, holding a stick in her hand while Kaidan was simply sitting and relaxing.

“All right.” He finally agreed. “I will try. Plus you need to take a break.”

With these words the major stood up on the edge of the stick and spread his wings. He still wasn’t sure how this whole flight thing would work, but he had to try, so he started to flap them. Unfortunately it looked like the wings didn’t have different speed settings, so as soon as the first flap was over, they simply started to work like little propellers, creating a distinct buzzing sound and Kaidan started to feel himself moving upwards.

Something snapped inside him, frightening the biotic and the next moment he pressed the wings back to his back, terrified and suddenly started to fall. As he was good several meters away from the ground the fall seemed to be like not a pleasant thing, so he started to flap his wings again, eagerly.

Apparently there weren’t any functions of hovering either. It was either falling or going up and forward. Kaidan of course knew that it wasn’t true, that he probably simply didn’t know how to control the flight properly, but for now he could only do these two things.

“Whoo-hoo!” Gabby cheered. “Look at you, flying and all!”

Kaidan would have liked to turn around and reply something to the engineer, but he simply couldn’t maneuver himself to do so. With the last bit of self-control he directed his flight just enough to head towards the castle, flying up higher and higher until he was above the line of the treetops. Then he stopped for a moment, to descend, and then back up so he could stay on the same height.

The view here, even if Kaidan was still a little frightened by the concept, was simply amazing. The sun was shining bright making him feel warm and the slight weaves of wind was also pleasant on his skin, even if it was more difficult to fly straight as the wind was pushing him away from the destination. Kaidan looked down. He honestly though that it would scare him, but it didn’t. He saw the treetops passing under him, saw Daniels running after him.

“I’m fine!” He yelled to the engineer. “Great even! I’m going to the castle!”

“Be safe!” Gabby yelled in response. “I will wait for you here!”

“I will be quick!” Kaidan smiled, spreading his arms and closing his eyes concentrating only on the sensations. He couldn’t imagine that it would feel that good.

“Kaidan!” He suddenly heard the engineer’s panicked voice.                 

Kaidan opened his eyes, right before the moment a black and white shadow approached him. The biotic didn’t even have time to contemplate what could it be, as big chaps opened right in front of his face emitting a terrible loud squeak. With the last moment, before the chaps closed around his body, Kaidan somehow managed to create a barrier, not to get momently crushed and closed his eyes preparing for the worst.

“Kaidan!” Gabby yelled again, but this time it was more distant, like she was further away.

The biotic opened his eyes finding himself trapped in a nib of what it seemed to be a swallow. The bird was carrying him somewhere which wasn’t the castle and the barrier Kaidan managed to create was very weak and quickly fading no matter how long he tried to concentrate on in. Kaidan looked down again, but saw nothing but the range of treetops. The swallow was flying fast, way faster than he could and there wasn’t a single way he could find Gabby again. Of course if he was going to survive.

The barrier dissipated even further and Kaidan started to feel the nip closing harder around him, to the point it started to be painful. Very painful.

Kaidan took a deep breath. There wasn’t a single way in the world he would agree to be killed by a barn swallow. It wasn’t that he was really afraid to die, but he had always thought that it would happen in a battle saving the galaxy with Shepard. Or, if he would be really lucky, of old age, and maybe, just maybe, also with Shepard. The idea that he could be simply defeated by a bird suddenly started to piss him off. With the last bit of strength he had, Kaidan concentrated on stunning the bird with his reave. He only had one chance on this, because the moment he would discharge the power, the barrier around him would be gone and if it wouldn’t work, he would be crashed.

Kaidan exhaled and stroke the swallow with his biotics. The bird squeaked again, this time in pain, losing its hold of Kaidan and dropping him. The biotic started to fall from the sky, building more and more speed with every meter. He tried to flap his wings again, but one of them appeared to be damaged.

The last thought Kaidan had before reaching the ground was if a cricket would die falling from this height. Then there was an impact, which felt really painful, but from another side, not as painful as it could be, because some sort of blue fabric softened his landing. Kaidan looked around in disbelieve and realized that he was laying on the lap of a young woman in a blue dress who looked nearly human but not quite. Her face was very pretty, with gentle features, her light skin had a slight purple tone, her eyes were glowing white and her forehand was decorated with something reminding tattoos – two lines going down from the line of her dark hair to her eyes.

“Keelah!” The woman exclaimed surprised and Kaidan suddenly recognized the voice. “How did you get here, little one!” she asked reaching for Kaidan and taking him to her hands.

“Tali?” Kaidan surprised. “Tali, you won’t believe, it’s me, Kaidan!” The biotic tried to explain.

“You… you can talk?” Tali surprised. “And… how do you know my name?”

“How? I worked with you, on the Normandy!”

“What… what are you talking about?” Tali protested in shock.

“You Highness!” Someone called suddenly before Kaidan had a chance to open his mouth to answer. “Your Highness, we had enough time for resting, you should return to your carriage.”

Kaidan turned his head to the direction of the voice and saw a man who looked similar to Tali. Probably that is how quarians looked without their suites. Speaking of which: “Why aren’t you wearing the suite? Aren’t you going to get sick?” Kaidan asked worried.

“Sick? Are you carrying a contagious illness?” Tali inquired.

“No! No, I’m not!”

“Your Highness!” The same voice called again.

“I’m going, I’m going!” Tali replied. “Should I take you with me? I have never seen a talking cricket before.” Tali turned her attention back to Kaidan. “You look hurt.” She also added.

Kaidan wanted to ask so many questions, but to tell the truth he really felt like he was about to pass out. He figured that he would have time to find out what was going on later, plus if Tali would leave him here, there wasn’t a single way he could survive alone. “Yeah,” he nodded. “Please…”

The quarian stood from the small folding chair and walked towards a vehicle Kaidan had never seen before. It looked like a wooden carriage, painted in white and gold, with several pipes sticking out its roof. It seemed to be a very primitive variant of an automobile, but really of a grotesque design, as it was a combination of an old fashioned horse coach and some technology built in it. Around the carriage stood around a dozen of guards armed with firearms, which looked like something from fifteenth century.

 “I’m ready to continue.” Tali said before stepping inside the carriage and only a moment later the thing started to vibrate and chug, before it finally moved.

“Did you pick another pet?” Kaidan heard another familiar voice. This time it was EDI. He turned his head and saw her sitting on the other side from Tali, wearing a linen white shirt with a leather corset and leather pants with a pair of goggles on her head. EDI also didn’t look robotic, but the way he saw this body for the first time, as Doctor Eve, with human skin and hair.

“This time it’s different.” Tali protested. “This time the cricket talks!”

“Talks?” EDI surprised. “Crickets do not talk, your highness, it is against their nature, as their mouths do not equipped with enough parts to produce any sounds possibly reminding speech.”

“EDI, it’s me, Kaidan!” the major tried again.

The girl looked at him suspiciously before reaching for him and grabbing him by the wings, pulling him up in the air. Surprisingly it didn’t hurt as much as he thought, but it was probably because other parts of his body was that much in pain that anything else felt dull in comparison. “Hmm, looks like you’re right, this one does talk. Perhaps he is also mechanical, like me?” She poked at his belly. "No, he looks organic. Probably it was a spell which made him talk." She concluded.

“Guys, don’t you recognize me at all?” Kaidan tried the last time, although he had already started to suspect that their memories were probably somehow altered, so they started to think that they were in fact some royal personas. In this case Kaidan had to try other options to figure out what was going on.

“No,” Tali replied. “Should we?”

“No, not at all.” Kaidan shook his head. “I’m just a cricket. A talking cricked.” He finally admitted. Looks like he would have to play along for a while.

“He could be a good gift to the prince!” EDI suddenly suggested, returning Kaidan back to Tali’s lap. “I heard their people like everything magical.”

“Don’t we have enough gifts for the prince already?” Tali sighed.

“We have gifts from our kingdom, not from you personally.”

“Probably…” Tali sighed again and turned her attention to the window. For some reasons she looked very sad, looking somewhere beyond the landscape like she was in deep thoughts.

Kaidan suddenly wanted to reach for her and give her a hug, but it would be impossible considering he was currently so small. Then he suddenly realized what EDI just suggested. Which was giving the major as a gift to some prince who would most likely lock him in a cage. He had to figure how to escape, but right now he was too weak to try.

***

Everyone in the castle looked busy, preparing for the big day. Shepard thought about talking casually to some of the servants to find more about the place he ended up in, but he had no idea how to approach anyone and not to look weird asking questions about something he supposed to know.

It was difficult to keep a track of time as the only clock he had seen so far was stationed in the throne room. It was a giant and noisy mechanism the size of the wardrobe with two weights, one for each hand of the clock and a cuckoo bird popping out a small door on top of the clock every hour. The clock itself was fascinating, but inconvenient as Shepard couldn’t take it with him if he was to leave the room to go somewhere else. He used to carry a watch everywhere as it was built in his omni-tool which didn’t work in here. So the only way to track the time meant for him returning in this room.

There were five and a half hours left before the delegation with his bride supposed to arrive and Shepard still had no idea what to expect out of it. He had no idea who his bride was, from which country she was or why was he marrying her. The commander had to find the information, to understand at least something about this place to start thinking about how to get out.

“Soldier!” he addressed to one of the guards standing next to the doorway leading to a small garden. “This is a spot security inspection.”

The guard’s eyes widened and his posture changed to a more rigid. “Yes, my lord!” He replied.

“For a better performance, every guard suppose to know the layouts of the facility they are guarding and the ways to quickly access any point. Where is the library?”

“In the southern tower, my lord! The quickest way to get there is from the hallway on the left side of this room and straight forward until the large staircase!” He answered.

Well, that was easy enough. “At ease, soldier. You did well.” Shepard nodded and turned around.

The layout of the castle wasn’t that difficult, it was mostly a squared building with four main towers and with the instructions Shepard received from the guard, finding the library wasn’t difficult. The library itself was a round room with bookshelves built into the walls around it and some in the middle dividing the room into small sections.

Shepard moved inside the library, viewing the endless rows of books and feeling slightly at lost about how to approach his research. It wasn’t that the commander had never been in a library before or had never seen so many actual paper books. Such establishments were still something existing in the time period he grew up in, and considering that for the military service he had to finish his secondary level of education he had been presented with an opportunity of visiting this sort of places several times. The only difference was the VI’s every modern library was equipped with, who could help with locating not only specific books, but give a short description of each of them, together with what sort of information could be found in them.

“Good morning, your highness!” Shepard suddenly heard a voice which sounded nearly electronic. Commander turned his head spotting a glowing ball approaching him from the right. “How can I help you today?”

This voice sounded very familiar. Shepard was sure he heard it somewhere before, somewhere on his ship. “Glyph?” The commander surprised.

“At your service!” Glyph replied cheerfully.

Something moved on the corner of Shepard’s eyes and he turned towards the direction of the movement spotting a silhouette walking on the other side of one of the shelves. It was difficult to determine who it was as the commander was only able to see small parts of the figure through the books. A moment later the person moved closer, stepping from behind the shelve.

“Anything you need, your highness?” Liara inquired.

Of course it would be her working in a library, regulating endless tomes of knowledge and information. The asari was dressed in a simple linen shirt and pants with a long leather gilet jacket on top. She approached Shepard giving him a warm smile.

“Umm, I just had some time to spare…” Shepard started, “I thought I might read something…”

“Read something?” Liara hummed. “It is rather unusual request from a man who prefers hunting and warfare to books.”

“Well,” The commander scratched his nape, “It’s kinda not enough time to organize a hunt, and I can't find anything else to do, while waiting for the delegation to arrive.”

“I see,” the asari nodded, “so what is it you wish to read, your highness?”

“I dunno…” Shepard shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe a history book? Nothing fancy, take it easy on me, ok?”

“All right,” Liara nodded. It still looked like she couldn’t believe the commander was telling the truth – the asari had always been very insightful, but still, she couldn’t question the prince. “Wait here for a moment, I will find you something.” She said and moved back to the shelves.

“Um, Liara…” Shepard called, “could you also find something on the topic of culture and genealogy of my family…” he added. “Please?”

Liara turned her head looking over the commander with shy surprise. “All right…” she complied.

***

After several hours of the travel Tali opened a small white napkin filling the carriage with a delicious smell of food and making Kaidan to suddenly realize how hungry he was, as he had never had a chance to eat his breakfast this morning and it was already around noon. His stomach suddenly started to swell and the biotic was left surprised that a huge migraine hadn’t started yet considering how hungry he was. But perhaps there was at least something good in being turned into a cricket, because if it meant that he wouldn’t have the headaches anymore, he could even leave with it. No, he really shouldn’t have started to think about spending the rest of his life as a cricket.

“Do you want some?” Tali proposed moving a piece of apple closer to the major.

“It would be most appreciated.” Kaidan nodded and reached for the apple.

And it was probably the tastiest apple he had ever tried, sweet and juicy and so big, that he could fill his stomach full and there would be more than a half of this piece left. It was probably the second good side in being something so small, you needed only so little food to stuff yourself.

The carriage suddenly stopped and Kaidan nearly fell to the ground driven by the inertia. Thankfully he managed to grip the edge of the wooden branch and climb back up.

“What, what is going on?” He inquired.

“We are under attack!” Tali explained, looking in the window and sounding way too cheerful that a person in danger should.

Kaidan moved closer to the window as well and jumped on a small wooden plank holding the glass to take a closer look, trying to ignore the pain his movements were causing. The guards outside stepped around the carriage, taking defensive position. One of the guards has been already laying on the ground with two arrows sticking from both of his legs. He was alive but in no condition to stand. The next arrow flew from somewhere in the forest striking another guard’s arm, making him drop his firearm. The next arrow took down the guard standing next to him, but hit the shoulder of his right hand. It looked like whoever was shooting them was intentionally trying not to kill anyone, but simply disarm or trip them to the ground.

“What are you waiting for, shoot!” One of the guards commanded.

The soldiers aimed their guns and a loud round of shot echoed through the forest. Something moved on the corner of Kaidan’s eyes, further in the tousle of bushes and for a second Kaidan could see a piece of blue metal blinking there, before another arrow flew out of the woods.

“Protect the carriage at all coasts!” The guard ordered again, before he fell into the ground with an arrow sticking out of his hip. “It’s just a one man, take him down!”

Several other guards disappeared from the view for a moment. Then they appeared from the both sides of the place where the attacker was supposedly hiding. They were carefully moving towards the sniper, with short runs from one tree to another. Those guys were really good at sneaking and Kaidan himself had difficulties seeing them, no way could their insulter spot them sitting in those bushes. After several steps they started to move even further surrounding the assassin from behind.

“Don’t worry, they are going to get him.” Kaidan commented turning to Tali. “He is cornered.”

Tali’s face changed from worried to terrified. “Oh no... Keelah, please no…” she pleaded, opening the window of the carriage doors. “Archangel! They are behind you! Run!” She suddenly yelled.

A single shot rang through the woods, starting a flock of small birds that ascended in dismay from the treetops before everything went quiet.

***

Gabriella had never considered herself a weak woman. Not after everything she had experienced during the past couple of years working as an engineer on the most advanced ship in the galaxy. She was capable of fixing any problem on any engine, fought against the collectors when they took over the Normandy, was abducted by them, spend half a year in cell for treason against the Alliance and found to be innocent, endured every stupid comment or joke from her colleague, Kenneth. Of course she was not a soldier, but she knew a thing or two of how to be strong.

But even with this, she found herself unable to stop crying for what it seemed like half an hour. What an idiot she was convincing Kaidan to fly. Because of it, because of her the major was dead, killed by a bird. How would she ever be able to confess to Shepard, how would she ever be able to look him in the eyes again. If the man would ever be able to believe her story, of course, because a story about Kaidan turning into a bug was a truly bizarre one.

After some time of sitting in one spot, she had finally decided to start moving again, because no matter what happened she had to find the others, had to understand what happened with them. She didn’t think, of course, she was going to be able to save anyone if needed, but it didn’t mean she was just going to stay here and cry for the rest of the day, mourning the death of her commanding officer.

So she started to walk.

Gabby had no idea what would she be able to find in the castle, she wasn’t even sure if people living there would be willing to cooperate and not simply execute her, but in any case it was way better than sitting in the middle of a forest waiting for a miracle to happen.

The road was easy as most of the time the path was descending down the hill. In the next hour she was finally able to see a bigger road, leading to her destination and hurried down to approach it.

Something unexpectedly caught her attention: a rustle of bushes and something reminding a groan coming from a small tousle surrounded by several large trees. Gabby reached for a pistol she borrowed from one of the emergency lockers onboard of the Normandy and slowly started to approach the noise, moving the branches of one of the larger bushes out of her way.

“Don’t move!” She demanded pointing a gun on a figure appearing in her sight. The person in front of her was wearing a blue and black armor and helmet which were shaped like turian's, but absolutely different in design as it looked more medieval. The person was sitting on the ground with his back pressed against the shaft of a tree, panting and holding one of his arms pressed against the stomach covering what appeared to be a wound with blood streaming down his pelvis. His second arm was gripping into something which appeared to be a bow.

“You came to finish the job?” The stranger asked calmly and Gabby suddenly recognized his voice.

“Garrus?” she surprised lowering the pistol.

“How, how do you know my name?” The turian surprised.

“You’re kidding me right?” the engineer replied.

“As you can see, I’m in no condition for jokes.” Garrus sighed, then started to cough.

“Hold on, let me check your wound.” Gabby descended on a knee in front of the turian. “I will need to take the plates of your armor off first.” She added looking over the armor and realizing that it didn't have the medi-gel dispensers.

The construction of this armor also seemed to be off, but Gabby had no time to think about it as she started to work on the leather straps holding the chest piece. The piece was removed quickly and the engineer was finally able to see the wound. She was not an expert in medicine, but the military training provided with enough knowledge about the first aid.

“It, doesn’t look too bad.” She concluded after a moment. “The skin of your stomach is torn, but the armor prevented whatever you were hit with to damage any of your vital organs. Hold on a second.”

With this she reached for a bag, she also acquired from the emergency locker and extracted the first aid kit out of it. Then she opened the kit and took one of the tubes with the medi-gel, applying it quickly on the wound. The edges of the torn skin started to quickly seal and less than in a moment only a small, nearly invisible scar was left on the turian’s stomach.

Garrus reached for the place where he was injured touching it with his gauntleted fingers. “How… are you a healing mage?” He asked surprised.

“Ha-ha, very funny!” Daniels replied.

Turian raised his arms to his helmet taking it off and looked at the engineer with his bird-like eyes, like he was trying to read her mind. He still had a scar on one of the side of his face, but wasn’t wearing his visor which was really unusual sight to see.

“I’m in your debt, young maiden, what can I do for you?” Garrus inquired.

“How about telling me what is going on? Where are the others? What are you doing in here dressed like…” she weaved her hand over the turian’s armor, “…like that.”

“You talk like you know me, maiden, but I can assure you that I see you for the first time in my life.” Garrus shook his head. “Neither have I known the others you are speaking of. And my armor is very usual among my people, not like the clothing you’re wearing.”

“All right,” Gabby nodded. She saw a lot of weird for today, so meeting Garrus who thought he was a knight of some sort wasn’t that bad. “Let me explain myself then,” she started, “me and my crew was flying on a starship, called the Normandy. Then there was a weir malfunction with the ship, then everyone went to bed and I woke up in this weird place. If you think it is weird, go ahead. I feel even worse.”

Garrus stood up from the ground picking up his chest armor piece and starting to attach it back to the rest of his armor. “I don’t think you’re lying,” he replied. “But the concept of ships flying in space in unusual for me.”

“Oh great!” Gabby exhaled. “Looks like we’ve been pulled into some sort of alternative universe, or something. Would have never believed in it if I haven’t witnessed a friend of mine being turned into a bug this morning.” The mention of Kaidan suddenly made her to feel terrible again. Seeing him being caught like that, because of her. No, she didn't need to think about it right now, needed to concentrate on how to get out from this place.

“It is possible.” Garrus agreed, “There are many sorts of magic in the world, good and bad… But I’m not a person you should talk to about it. An advise on how to shoot or fight, that’s something I can do.”

“So whom do I need to talk to about it, then?” Gabby asked.

“There is a mage who lives in the castle.” Garrus explained. “She is a powerful one, a wise one. So I heard.”

“All right! So, off to the castle I go.” Daniels sighed.

“I should accompany you then.” Garrus proposed picking his quiver from the ground. “I have an unfinished business of my own to attend there.”

“Unfinished business?” Gabby hummed.

“Yes.” The turian nodded, as he started to check the string of his bow. “I should take care of a person who is about to steal the woman I love… I should kill the prince...”

_To be continued..._

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone should stop me... It just got longer again... and damn, it's really difficult to look for grammar mistakes in long chapters... so please forgive me!

Kaidan was sitting on Tali’s shoulder watching the white towers of the castle getting closer and closer with each passing minute. The castle was surrounded with fields and a small town with hundreds of half-stone and half-wooden houses with tiny backyards. Although Kaidan suspected that for the local standards this town was considered pretty big. The place reminded a classical medieval settlement with people dressed in dirty linen clothes, with small domestic animals and birds there and there, children running around barefoot with wooden stick in their hands chasing each-other. Several times the carriage passed shepherds driving small stocks of geese or goats down the road and each time they had been stopping to bow before the carriage in a gesture of greeting. The place also looked somewhat dirty, but Kaidan’ couldn’t say that those people were starving or ill, they were just peasants who used to live in this sort of environment.

Finally the town was behind and the carriage started its way up the hill towards the main gates of the castle, puffing and snorting even more than while it was moving down a straight road. The castle itself looked very impressive up close: the stone walls were surrounding the main construction with four white towers, the tallest of which could probably reach the line of the clouds on a rainy day. Several red and golden standards were hanging on the white walls, fluttering slightly in the wind.

The first gates, leading inside the courtyard were open and several well-dressed people were greeting the arriving delegation. Unlike the village this place looked clean and neat, with paved ground and several trees, carefully cut to form round and oval shapes of the foliage.

Tali placed Kaidan in one of the pockets on her dress, so the biotic could stay mostly hidden but could still peek out and see everything around, before she stepped out of the carriage accepting the help of one of her servants as she did. Some people greeting them called for help to assist the injured quarians whose wounds had been already attended, but who still needed a proper care, but did it nearly unnoticeable for the princess and her maid.

To tell the truth Kaidan felt really nervous about meeting the prince as he was supposed to be a gift for this man. He still had no idea how to find a way out of this situation and hoped he would have time to talk to Tali and convince her not to give the talking cricket up.

Although when they finally entered the main hall he had probably became an absolutely useless gift as he lost the ability to speak looking at the three people standing next to the thrones. Anderson stood in the middle dressed in red coat with white fur around his shoulders and a long red cloak attached to the coat with two golden pins. From the left side of him stood a woman with shoulder length blond hair Kaidan talked several times to when he worked with his students. Kahlee Sanders was her name if he remembered it right. She was dressed in a purple dress with a creasy skirt and a corset.

But the person who really left him speechless was the one standing to the left. It was Shepard wearing something which closely reminded Alliance ceremonial uniform, but was white with golden buttons and belt buckle. On his shoulders Shepard was wearing a blue cloak, emphasizing the color of his eyes.

Of course Shepard was the prince, go figure! While Kaidan got stuck in a cricket body, the commander just had to be someone royal in this weird place. And not only Shepard was the prince, he was also going to marry a princess. Kaidan pondered for a moment if he personally offended some greater forces in the universe somehow, so they were making fun of him now.

“Princess Tali’Zorah nar Rayaa” announced one of the servants and Kaidan could have sworn he could see Shepard’s eyes round in surprise. The man looked shocked only for a second, before he blinked and forced himself to calm down. It wasn’t enough to come to any conclusions, but Kaidan suddenly started to hope that maybe Shepard remembered everything as well. Now if only Kaidan had a chance to talk to him privately. The idea of being gifted now didn’t seem like a bad one.

The introduction part ended with a big banquet where neither Tali nor Shepard made any attempts to talk to each other, except exchanging some pleasantries. But Kaidan thought it was normal for a political wedding.

Kaidan was still stuck in the pocket, but at least he had an opportunity to get something from the tables as the quarian snuck a small piece of ham and one grape and placed it into her pocket, carefully so no one could see her doing it.

After the banquet Shepard invited the princess to walk with him in the garden. It was a quiet place surrounded with ornately shaped metal fence. It had already been a late evening, but the place was bright enough, eliminated with something reminding spotlights, but powered not by electricity, but something else as it were simple glowing orbs situated on top of poles all around place.

It looked like the garden was filled with rose bushes as the biotic could smell their sweet aroma, but Kaidan had difficulties seeing them as Tali and Shepard were walking down a small path towards a fountain and his sight was limeted.

“I hope you’re enjoying your stay in here.” Shepard said and by the sound of it Kaidan was sure that the man was smiling.

“I do. Your hospitality is well appreciated, my lord.” Tali confirmed.

“It’s very different from your country, although.” Shepard pointed out making Kaidan wonder how he would know it. The hope that the commander remembered was slowly fading, bringing despair into Kaidan’s heart.

“It is.” Tali agreed, “But I hope I will get used to the changes. My father keeps repeating that change is an undeniable part of the life.”

“Your farther…” Shepard fluttered in surprise, “How… how is he doing?”

Tali hummed: “The king is fine, my lord,” she answered, “why would you ask?”

“I… doesn’t matter.” The commander sighed. For a moment he was silent, like was trying to contemplate something. “Just seems to me that it is uncomfortable for you to be brought here against your will.” He finally said.

“Both out countries will benefit from this union.” Tali explained quietly. “You know that.”

“I do.” Shepard agreed. “Doesn’t make it easier.”

Tali reached for the commander’s arm touching it gently. “May be it will be, with time.” She sighed.

Shepard suddenly stopped facing the quarian. Kaidan absolutely had no chance to see their faces, only the fact how close the two of them were suddenly standing. The biotic’s heart started to tromp desperately in his chest at the mere idea how intimate this moment was for the two of them.

“You’re very beautiful…” Shepard said tenderly and Kaidan wished he could disappear, could fly away somewhere and never return. The biotic had never noticed any affection towards the quarian mechanic from Shepard’s side, but what if there always was something? What an idiot he had been for this last several months trying desperately to gain the commander’s attention.

And what a torture it was to be stuck in a pocket witnessing it right now. Everything inside him turned upside down and it became difficult to breath. On the corner of his mind Kaidan noticed how desperately he wanted Shepard to reconsider, to turn away from Tali, to tell her that this wedding was nothing but a political union and he really didn’t want to have anything with her, instead of standing here so close that it was so easy to reach and kiss her. His wings fluttered up suddenly, rubbing one another and a loud chirp pealed, making Kaidan stop still feeling externally embarrassed.

“Umm… what was that?” Shepard surprised.

“Oh, I almost forgot!” Tali announced reaching for the pocket and carefully extracting the cricket out of it, bringing him closer to the commander to take a look.

“Ok…” Shepard nodded confused. “That’s a cricket. A huge one, even!” He chuckled.

“It can talk.” The quarian explained.

Kaidan wasn’t in a mood for talking. He still felt terrible embarrassed and uncomfortable and a little bit angry at his commander. “Good evening, your majesty…” he mumbled not missing the moment when Shepard nearly opened his mouth in surprise.

“His name is… Kayden…” Tali started. “Keydan…”

“Kaidan.” Shepard and the biotic corrected simultaneously.

“Uh, sorry…” Tali apologized. “Do you know him?” She asked then surprised.

“You can say that…” Shepard confirmer taking the cricket into his hands and smiling wide, almost amused, which only made Kaidan to suddenly want to punch him.

 

***

Gabriella and Garrus had reached the town only by the end of the evening. It wasn’t quite late, but the sun had already started to set down, painting the sky with orange and pink. The town they arrived in was consistent of mostly humans and the two of them were standing out very much. Garrus because he was a turian and Gabby, because of her unusual clothing. But even with it, people preferred to simply ignore them.

“We should find the place to stay tonight.” Garrus proposed. “The castle gates must be closed already.”

“And where do you propose to stay?” Gabby inquired.

“I have never been here before, but there should be an inn somewhere.” Garrus shrugged his shoulders. “I think I also wouldn’t mind visiting this place.” He also added suddenly stopping before a building with an image of a sword and hammer painted on a wooden sign.

“What is this?” Gabby asked.

“A blacksmith shop…” Garrus chuckled like the engineer had said something really stupid, even if it wasn’t her fault she didn’t know much about medieval society. “What? I can’t walk around with a hole in my armor, can I?”

The shop on the inside was dark, but not to the point it was impossible to see a thing, just this half-light somber. It smelt like smoke and a thick layer of grime was covering every wall. One of the walls mas made of stone and had a rather large furnace built into it. It was also really hot in here. The heat from the furnace was so great, it had made Gabby, who used to the air conditioned environment, break into sweat the very moment they entered. The smith himself was standing next to the anvil with his back turned to the visitors. He was a rather large man with heavy musculature, dressed in a tight shirt with short sleeves, so Gabby could see some tattoos on his right arm.

Gabby honestly tried not to burst into laughing realizing that she knew the blacksmith, as the man used to work in armory on the Normandy. With the last bit of self-control she stopped herself from doing it, but at the same time Gabby noted that the role of a blacksmith suited James well considering his interest in weapons.

At first James hadn’t even noticed the two visitors. He was concentrated on a something which looked to be a blade of a sword he held with a large gripping tongs above an anvil in one hand and hammering it with another hand to create the needed shape.

Garrus cleared his throat, making James turn his head for a moment before he returned to his work. “The working day is over, come back tomorrow.” James explained simply.

“We can’t come back tomorrow – we have an important business to attend in the castle.” Garrus shook his head. The turian had to nearly yell to be heard over the sound of the hammer beating the heated metal.

“Well, it’s not exactly my problem, isn’t it?” James chuckled.

“It will be yours, considering you are about to lose a triple pay for a simple job.” Garrus shrug his shoulders.

The sound of the beating stopped and James turned his head back again, looking over the turian, like he was appraising him. Then his eyes stopped at the hole in the middle of Garrus’ chest. “This a turian armor, I wouldn’t accept the job less than for three golden coins in the first place.” He said.

“Make it ten coins and you start working right now.”

Vega moved the still bright orange steal of the blade into a bath filled with water and dipped it. The water hissed touched by the blade and a puff of steam vaporized rising above the bath and melting with the air. Then James crossed his arms on his chest looking over the turian. “Deal.” He finally nodded.

 

***

Shepard returned to his room, carrying Kaidan on his shoulder. He still couldn’t believe what happened to his friend. It was one thing to get thrown into an alternative reality forgetting your previous life and it was entire different thing to be turned into something so small and fragile in a process.

“So, you do remember me, don’t you?” Kaidan asked tentatively.

“I do.” Shepard nodded.

“And the Normandy? The war?”

“Unfortunately…” Shepard sighed “Do you want a drink?” he then inquired opening a small closet on a far end of the room and starting to go through several bottles of what it looked to be wine, trying to choose one.

“No, I don’t think it’s a good idea.” Kaidan sighed shaking his head.

“Well, suite yourself, then,” The commander grinned, opening one of the bottles and pouring it into a small glass. “So, a cricket, huh?” he chuckled.

“That’s not really funny, Shepard.” Kaidan replied gloomily.

“Sorry, it’s just…” Shepard looked over his friend. “You chirped! And yes, it is a little bit funny.” He admitted sipping the wine and spitting it back to the glass.

Shepard had never been a fan of this particular drink. A shot of whiskey from time to time and rarely some beer was something he was used to, but wine meant to be a more festive drink, for special occasions the commander had almost never had. And this one was just terrible, too sweet and stiff and probably not even filtrated.

“Gross...” Shepard sighed and this time it was Kaidan’s time to chuckle.

“Well, I’m glad I decided to skip the drink then.” The biotic admitted. ‘So, care to explain what the hell is going on? Where are we and what are we doing here?”

“Yeah,” Shepard nodded moving closer to the bed and taking a sit on it. Kaidan jumped down the commander’s shoulder and settled on a pillow next to the other man.

Shepard explained everything he knew, starting from the moment they suddenly stopped in the middle of nowhere to the moment he met Q, then he told about the curse and the three days he had to fix it. Kaidan was listening carefully, nodding from time to time or asking question if he wasn’t sure about something. In his turn Kaidan had spilled everything happened to him, starting from the morning he woke up not exactly himself.

“Well, it would make it two days now.” Kaidan finally sighed when Shepard finished his story. “Any clues on what Q could have meant? Any clues on how to get out of here?” He also asked.

“No,” Shepard admitted honestly. The whole day he spent trying to figure something out was in vain and he wasn’t any closer to the answer then in the morning. “But you said the ship is somewhere in the forest, is it functional?”

“Honestly, I have no clue.” Kaidan admitted. “But even if it was fully intact and working, we can’t just grab everyone we know and fly away, as they don’t remember a thing.”

“No, we can’t.” Shepard agreed with a sigh as he laid down on the bed fully clothed.

For a moment the two of them were silent. Shepard turned his head to look up at the ceiling. It was high and made of stone and looked nothing like what he used to see laying in his bed. For some reason the inability to see the stars was making him slightly claustrophobic.

“Say…” He suddenly heard Kaidan whispering.

“Huh?”

“Were there anything between you and Tali?” Kaidan asked.

Shepard nearly laughed at the question. “Why?” he asked.

“I’m sorry, I just witnessed the conversation the two of you had. I know I wasn’t supposed to, but I couldn’t do anything about it, sitting in her pocket…”

“You chirped.” Shepard reminded interrupting.

“Now you aren’t going to let it go, are you?” Kaidan sighed “What I’m trying to say, that I behaved like a fool around you lately.” He then started to explain. “So I wanted to know if I should apologize or just continue making an idiot of myself around you. I mean I’ve never seen anything between you and her.”

“You must have been blind.” Shepard smiled. He knew he was teasing his friend right now, but it was strangely comforting, the fact he still could talk to Kaidan like this.

“Yeah, I must have been…” Kaidan agreed.

“Otherwise you would have noticed the amount of flirting between her and Garrus.”

“Yeah, I suppose… wait what?” the biotic surprised, making the commander chuckle.

“Ok, let’s drop it, before we started to gossip like two elder ladies on a marketplace.” Shepard finally laughed standing from the bed, extinguishing the candles and starting to strip from his uncomfortable clothes. Then he climbed into the bed and covered himself with a blanket, trying not to think about the fact he was going to share his bed with the biotic. But from another side it wasn’t like they had never shared a room or a shower even if it was before Kaidan started to show romantic interests.

“We need to get some rest.” Shepard added.

“We will figure it out, Shepard.” Kaidan reassured warmly, after a moment of simply laying in the dim lights of the moon soaking into the room through the large windows. “We will find a way to return everything to normal, I know it… I know you.”

Shepard turned his head to look at his friend. It was still weird to see Kaidan like this, but at the same time it was really him, because only he could always reassure Shepard in this way, only he could really make him believe that everything will be fine. Even if sometimes it was taking Kaidan very long to find the right words, even if those reassuring words were coming out of nowhere. If Shepard would have been absolutely honest with himself, he would admitted that it was also Kaidan’s company making him feel stronger, making him feel like he could do anything.

“I’m happy it is you.” Shepard said quietly. He didn’t intend to say it out loud but it simply slipped out of his mouth before he could stop it.

“Huh?” the biotic surprised.

“Umm… I’m happy it is you who remember.” The commander explained. “I have the feeling that now things will go faster. With your level of intelligence, you know.”

It wasn’t exactly what Shepard was thinking, but it wasn’t a lie either.

“So, you admit that I’m smarter than you?” Kaidan chuckled.

“I’ve never denied it.” The commander smiled looking at the biotic who was laying on the pillow next to him on the eye-level and looking back at him. “Smarter, stronger, handsomer…”

Shepard for sure had no idea why was he spilling something like that, because he was sure he wouldn’t do it in any other circumstances. But having Kaidan turned into something else was for some reason making it easier, like Shepard was practicing right words in front of mirror. At the same time Shepard found himself terrified that he unexpectedly ended up telling everything he had bottled up for quite some time, while he still knew that they couldn’t be anything more than friends. Not with the war and the Reapers. Shepard would do anything to save everyone he cared about, to protect everyone, even if he would have to sacrifice himself. Promising Kaidan something more than friendship while there was a good chance he would have to rip it out of his hands one day, was just wrong and unfair.

Kaidan meanwhile was looking the commander right in the eyes, not even moving. At was also difficult to understand if he was breathing or not, but Shepard suspected it was because of his current size.

“And greener.” Sheppard grinned finally, trying to turn everything into a joke.

“Really?” Kaidan groaned. “Don’t you think it’s a good time to stop running already?”

“I’m not running!” Shepard protested.

“No? Because it sure looks like you do to me!”

“Kaidan…” Shepard warned.

“Don’t…”

But Kaidan had never get a chance to say anything else, as a knock on the door disturbed them and whoever was on the other side of the door seemed to be really urgent, considering how loud they were knocking.

“Yes?” Shepard replied.

“Shepard, it’s me, Liara…” the commander heard a familiar voice from the other side of the door. “We need to talk.”

Shepard blinked, quickly getting out of the bed and tugging the shirt over his head, then getting into his pants before he called the asari in and she entered the room. The air of fear and confusion was crossing her face as she looked at the commander.

“What, in the name of goddess, is going on in here?” She asked.

 

***

“A curse?” The asari sighed rubbing her temple. “It does sound unusual.” She nodded.

The three of them were now gathered in the prince’s room talking. It looked like Liara was sitting in the library reading a book before she left to her own quarters for the night and suddenly remembered everything, like she woke up from a weird dream. She couldn’t explain why it happened or how, but she also remembered nearly entire life as a mage on a service of the king, like the asari had two separate lives. Not entirely sure what else to do with this newfound knowledge she remembered about prince’s weird behavior this morning, and remembering that the prince had also been the Commander Shepard of the Normandy in the other universe, going to him for help and answers seemed like the only logical thing.

“What did you do?” She asked.

“What do you mean?” Shepard inquired.

“I mean, what were you doing the moment I remembered? Because whatever it was cold have triggered my memories. It can be a key to breaking the spell.” Liara explained.

“I swear we didn’t do anything unusual.” Shepard protested. “We were just sitting here, talking. Then you came."

“What have you been talking about?” Liara pushed, making the commander uncomfortable.

“About this word we found ourselves in, about ways of breaking the curse.” Shepard replied.

“Permission to speak freely, commander?” Kaidan interrupted.

“Permission granted?” Shepard nodded surprised.

“You’re bullshiting… sir.” The Biotic groaned.

Liara moved her eyes from Shepard to Kaidan and back to Shepard as if she was trying to understand the situation, waiting the commander to respond and explain, but the both men were remaining silent.

“Listen…” Liara sighed finally as she stood up from a chair. “It looks to me, like you need to talk some more on the matter you were discussing. I lost my sleep, but I think I might go and work in the library some to find at least any information about curses and breaking them.”

“Are you sure?” Shepard asked almost pleading.

“Very.” Liara nodded and left the room, closing the door behind her.

Shepard rubbed the back of his neck, turning towards his friend. He tried to say something, but Kaidan interrupted before he even had a chance to open his mouth.

“Forget it, I’m going to sleep. It has been a hell of a crazy day.” The biotic said, jumping on the bed and curling on a pillow.

Shepard bit his lower lip and went to bed as well, trying to get a spot as far away as Kaidan as he only could. For nearly half an hour he was turning on the bed trying to fall asleep, but his head was filled with so many thoughts that it made it nearly impossible. And the most uncomfortable was the fact that there were so many thoughts so he simply couldn’t start thinking about anything in particular.

The commander turned back again to look at his friend and noticed him curled into a ball, like a cat. It also seemed like he was cold, or maybe it was just Shepard’s imagination as he was sure that he himself would have become cold without a blanket. He didn’t even know if crickets could feel the temperature as humans did and didn’t have his omni-tool to check it on the extranet. Covering Kaidan with his own blanket didn’t seem possible either.

“Damn it.” He muttered quietly and stood up walking towards his closet. There he found a silk handkerchief. Then he returned to bed and carefully covered Kaidan with the piece of white cloth feeling slightly silly about it. “I’m sorry…” He whispered. “If only the circumstances were different…”

 

***

Gabriella woke up before even the sun started to rise. It was still dim outside, not earlier than six hundred hours, but the town seemed awake. Hundreds of people were moving down the streets, opening little shops or moving towards the fields to start the working day.

The night before she and Garrus left Vega to work on the turian armor and found a small, but relatively clean and cozy inn. Of course the engineer had no local currency, but Garrus paid for her room as he felt somewhat obligated to do so for treating his wound. In any other circumstances Gabby would have never accepted such an offer, but she couldn’t stay on the streets either.

The turian knocked on her door merely fifteen minutes after she woke up and explained that they had to move if they wanted to meet with the mage before Garrus had a chance to attend his own business, as they wouldn’t be welcome in the castle afterwards. So together, after a quick breakfast, they moved towards the smith shop.

“Would twelve be enough?” Gabby heard the familiar voice of Lieutenant Vega before they entered the shop.

“Yes, more than enough.” Replied the second voice the engineer also recognized. Curiously she picked inside the shop and noticed Steve Cortez standing next to a small stand displaying a variety of horseshoes. Vega was standing next to him, packing the horseshoes into a small wooden crate. “I simply need to prepare his highness’ horse for the hunt they are attending later today. Plus decided to get several extra ones, just in case.”

“Doesn’t the royal smith make horseshoes? Why coming here?” Vega chuckled.

“Not as good as yours.” Cortez explained with a shy smile.

“Or maybe you can’t resist my charm, and that is why you keep coming so often?” James proposed with a smirk.

Steve fidgeted uncomfortably on his fit and James froze looking at the other man with shock.

“Damn it…” James muttered placing the last horseshoe he was holding in his hands to the crate and leaned on the stand. “You’re a married man, you know?”

“I know… it’s just… It doesn’t work for me and Robert somehow… for the last half a year we seemed to be getting further and further apart. It’s like something went wrong, like we are trying to play roles of someone who isn’t us. I’m not sure how to put it right…” Steve sighed.

Gabriella was shocked to hear them discussing something like this, as well as she was shocked that apparently Steve’s husband was alive, if she understood right. But the whole situation started to feel really uncomfortable, so she found herself trying to decide whatever she should run or interrupt. Garrus made the decision instead of her clearing his throat to indicate their presence. 

Vega seemed startled for a moment, then he took a hold of himself and moved away from the stand with the horseshoes. “I think you should go…” He sighed, addressing to Steve.

“Yeah, I should.” The other man nodded grabbing the crate and moving towards the exit passing the two guests.

“Sorry, it looked like we interrupted an important conversation.” Garrus apologized when the shuttle pilot was gone.

“No,” Vega shook his head, “I glad you did. It might give me time to think what to do with this mess.” He admitted. Then the lieutenant blinked looking at the two of them. “And why the hell I even started to discuss it with you?” He groaned. “I see you for the second time in my life!”

“Feels like we met each-other before, doesn’t it?” Gabby proposed. She wasn’t sure what she was trying to accomplish, but maybe it was a chance to make the lieutenant to remember.

Vega turned away from the two of them rubbing the back of his neck, “No, this is ridiculous.” He pushed the idea away. “Anyway, the chest piece is ready.” He said reaching for one of the armor stands. “Now take it and go.”

Garrus accepted the piece with a nod. “Great work!” He announced after some examination.

“Of course it is.” James grinned. “What else would you expect from the best smith in the kingdom?”

“Definitely not humbleness.” Garrus pointed out.

“Oh, no,” Vega shook his head. “You should try looking some other places for this particular character trait. Anyway, why are you still here?”

“Amusement.” The turian grinned. “But yes, it is really enough of pleasantries for today, we should move.” Garrus nodded and started to walk towards the exit.

Gabby bowed her head in a silent ‘thank you’ and followed her companion.

“A royal hunt…” Garrus murmured when they were out of the shop. “Interesting…”

 

***

Kaidan couldn’t remember when was the last time he had a chance to sleep that well. When he woke up, he found himself in the very bright room, filled with sunlight and the birds were chirping loudly outside. Kaidan opened his eyes and stretched, snuggling into the blanket, then looked around. Yes, it was still the same room in the castle he fell in sleep in, same bed and the same green body of a cricked he was trapped in. He looked at the blanked he was covered with and noticed that it was a small handkerchief. The only explanation on how he ended up under it was that Shepard covered him. The thought made him feel warmer somehow.

Kaidan turned his head and saw Shepard still fast asleep next to him. The commander looked so peaceful while sleeping, younger with less wrinkles under his eyes. Kaidan wanted to reach to his face and touch his features, feel his skin with his fingers, the lines of his cheekbones, his lips. And better yet feel it not under his thumb, but with his own lips. Damn it, Kaidan just wanted to kiss the commander so bad it actually hurt. The biotic looked lower noticing that Shepard wasn’t covered – he probably pushed his blanket away in the middle of the night – his chest was bare, smooth, nearly hairless and he wondered how would it feel to taste this skin with his tongue. Unintentionally Kaidan glanced even lower and nearly groaned in surprise and frustration. The commander was wearing a pair of white underpants that was so thin it was nearly possible to see what was under them. Shepard was also rock-hard.

Kaidan averted his eyes gulping. It was really wrong to look, it was a serious violation of Shepard’s privacy, moreover while he still was his commanding officer. It also wasn’t like Kaidan had never seen the commander naked –the first Normandy didn’t have a private shower in the captain’s quarters, but he honestly hadn’t been thinking about the man in this manner back then. Plus Shepard had never been hard while taking public showers.

Damn. Kaidan wasn’t going to turn and look like the biggest creep in the galaxy, but he didn’t really need to, as the only glance he had gotten was enough for the image to be imprinted in his memory. Shepard was nice sized, nothing extranet fetish sites grade, and Kaidan thought that he himself was slightly bigger, but still it was a nice size. Bigger than everything he tried. Not that he tried many of course. Kaidan suddenly found himself wondering how it would feel to have this length inside him, stretched by this girth. Or maybe to take it into his mouth.

His wings suddenly fluttered again, grinding over each other without his permission and making those terrible chirping sounds. He reached for them with his hands trying to stop the movements before the noise could wake the commander but was too late. Shepard started to groan, turning on the side, then opened his eyes blinking and looking around the room until his gaze stopped on the cricked who was desperately trying to hold his wings and look nowhere but the board of the bed.

“Hey,” Shepard grinned, “morning…”

“Morning to you too, Shepard.” Kaidan replied fighting his embarrassment. He wasn’t even sure was he more embarrassed by his thoughts or the chirping. And not that the biotic considered himself a prude or a shy person, as it definitely wasn’t the truth, it was just the whole situation was making him terribly uneasy.

Shepard tried to stretch turning on his stomach and groaned, making Kaidan even more flushed. The commander himself behaved like nothing was going on, yawning and smiling as he watched his friend holding onto the tiny wings.

“You know that I will never going to let this one slip.” Shepard chuckled.

“Yeah, and this scares me the most.” Kaidan admitted.

“Hey, be thankful it’s me and not Joker.”

“You have no idea, how thankful I am.” Kaidan smirked. “Totally wouldn’t want to wake up with him in the same bed.”

Shepard laughed. Actually and honestly laughed, his voice rocking through the stone walls of the room. The sound of it made Kaidan feel lightheaded like after a bottle or two of good beer. It felt nice, really nice.

“Do you have any idea what time it is?” Shepard asked as he started to rise from the bed, turning away from Kaidan and reaching for his pants.

“I just woke up myself,” Kaidan shook his head, “but according to the sun it’s something around nine. Or ten…”

Shepard suddenly stopped still, before rushing to the wardrobe. “Shit!” He swore, starting to dig through some clothes, tossing most of it to the floor.

“Is something wrong?” Kaidan inquired.

“Yes. Very much so.” Shepard nodded. “I’m going to be so late!”

“Late to where?” Kaidan surprised.

“The hunt.” Shepard answered.

Kaidan followed his friend with his glance as the commander was hurrying to find and get dressed into something decent. Apparently this day was going to be as crazy as the previous one, he though. Kaidan also couldn’t miss the way Shepard was smiling as he was extremely excited by the fact he was going to participate in something like a hunt. Maybe this whole mess wasn’t as bad as Kaidan anticipated at the beginning, if there was at least a small chance Shepard could have some time to relax and have fun, to have at least a day off.

Or maybe more than a single day, because if they wouldn’t be able to figure how to break the curse, they would be stuck in this place forever. Kaidan gulped thinking about it and suddenly realized that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all. Of course the biotic would never return to his previous form, but if it meant to give the commander a chance to be free from the war and death, to live in a castle as a prince, to have a beautiful wife and later some kids, to finally be happy…

“Are you coming?” Shepard suddenly called interrupting his thoughts.

Kaidan blinked looking at his commander. “Yeah… yeah, I’m coming.” He nodded.


End file.
